all the people of one place were engaged in celebrating
events in which all were interested. Thus games celebrating sowing and
harvest, and those associated with love and marriage, are played in this
form. Both these methods allow of development. The circle varies from
examples where all perform the same actions and say the same words to
that where two or more players have principal parts, the others only
singing or acting in dumb show, to examples where the singing has
disappeared. The form or method of play and the actions constitute the
oldest remaining parts of the game (the words being subject to
alterations and loss through ignorance of their meaning), and it is to
this form or method, the actions and the accompaniment of song, that
they owe their survival, appealing as they do to the strong dramatic
instinct of children and of uncultured folk.

It will be convenient to give a few instances of the best-known singing
games. In "line" form, a fighting game is "We are the Rovers." The words
tell us of two opposing parties fighting for their land; both sides
alternately deride one another and end by fighting until one side is
victorious. Two other "line" games, "Nuts in May" and "Here come three
dukes a-riding," are also games of contest, but not for territory. These
show an early custom of obtaining wives. They represent marriage by
capture, and are played in "line" form because of the element of contest
contained in the custom. Another form, the "arch," is also used to
indicate contest.

Circle games, on the contrary, show such customs as harvest and
marriage, with love and courting, and a ceremony and sanction by
assembled friends. "Oats and beans and barley" and "Sally Water" are
typical of this form. The large majority of circle games deal with love
or marriage and domestic life. The customs surviving in these games deal
with tribal life and take us back to "foundation sacrifice," "well
worship," "sacredness of fire," besides marriage and funeral customs.

Details may be found in the periodical publications of the Folk-lore
Society, and particularly in the following works:--A.B. Gomme's
_Traditional Games of Great Britain_ (2 vols., Nutt, 1894-1898);
Gomme's _Children's Singing Games_ (Nutt, 1904.); Eckenstein's
_Comparative Studies in Nursery Rhymes_ (Duckworth, 1906); Maclagan,
_Games of Argyllshire_, Folk-lore Society (1900); Newell's _Games of
American Children_ (Harper Bros., New York, 1884).